Student SPHere 2008-09

Here i am yet again in a cafe-Starbucks to be exact. Philly is very interesting, a runway for ALL walks of life. Totally loving it! Well, not more than Minnesota of course! I am waiting for the idealist fair to start in a few hours. Trying to do my homework for class tomorrow( did i mention i am a total procrastinator when the mood besets me???). Ok so before i start getting side tracked again let me post what i had written yesterday. Did i mention that MSP charges almost $10 to use the internet? Way to make money! Here goes:

So, I am sitting at a café in the Saint Paul/Minneapolis Lindberg terminal… I just missed my flite and the next one leaves at 1PM. So being that it is 10AM right now, what better time to sit and introduce myself to you. I do realize that I am starting out a little late in the game, but considering that nothing spectacular has happened in my life till this point, its not a big deal right?

For the benefit of those that did not see my summer blog. My name is Dinah Djidjeme Dafeamekpor. I am an international student from Ghana(west Africa). Although my mother is Ukrainian, I was raised in Ghana so I identify more with my father’s Ghanaian roots than with my mother. Side note—I am excited about graduating in May next year because if everything works(fingers crossed) I will be going to Ukraine for the first time to see my grandfather who I have never met. And of course since I will be ALL the way in Europe, did I hear you say “why not go backpacking through Germany, Sweeden, Italy, Switzerland and England?�. Good job! Because that is exactly what my roommates and I plan to do after I done with my bonding experience. Fun!

Did I mention that the airport is actually a pretty cool place to study? I suppose I should come here more often to study! I feel like a French madame, sitting here drinking my chamomile tea waiting for my hot breakfast. I am not sure if French madams use laptops but I still feel like one anyways. So back to introducing myself.

By the time I was 3 ½ years old, my family was living in a non profit orphan establishment, SOS Children’s Village in Tema a suburb of Ghana. As a result, I had an early awareness of the concept of community and public service. Once I was done with high school, I was on a plane to Agnes Scott College in Georgia to study pre med and a self designed Bio/Psychology major. In the last few years, I have made my most meaningful contributions to public health; I volunteered at a homeless shelter for battered women; Hagar’s House. I also earned a certified nursing degree at Medix Allied Health School which allowed me to work in a nursing home, a gynecologist’s office and the trauma unit in Atlanta Medical Center. I also traveled back to the Eastern Region of Ghana where I participated in several community based projects with elementary schools, orphanages and auditory and visually impaired individuals. For my field experience this summer, I worked in Mobile, Alabama doing survey research on adolescent risk behavior in one of the lowest income communities in the United States. I learned a lot about the research process and risk behavior patterns associated with poverty.

Ah! Bonjour Madame! Breakfast is served...

Now that I've drank enough Chamomile tea for a lifetime, I must mention that this is my second and hopefully last year as a maternal and child health student at the U of M, School of Public Health. This year I find myself busier than ever. I work with Dr Riley within the Division of Health Policy and Management working on his AHRQ project, I also work with student services under the director of Recruitment, Melvin Monett. This is actually why I happen to be at the airport on the eve of a school night—the Idealist Fair in Philadelphia. As part of my job with student recruitment services, I am representing the school at a career fair tomorrow. It is “sad� that I will miss one class tomorrow but one has to sacrifice sometimes right? But seriously, I am having to turn in my homework electronically and quite frankly I am lucky that my professor(for principles of public health research), Dr Call allowed me to do this. In a nutshell, I am excited for the school year and fingers crossed I won’t have a hard time finding a job when I graduate. I am looking forward to telling you ALL about my semester good, bad and ugly!